


you lost your light when the darkness called

by YellowMagicalGirl



Series: Once and Potentially Future [3]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: Also mentions of various platonic relationships, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Angst with an Ambiguous Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Demiromantic Krel Tarron, Demiromanticism, Demisexual Krel Tarron, Demisexuality, Love Confessions, M/M, Mentions of Jlaire and Staja, Mind Control, Other characters get mentioned, Pining, Title from a Starset Song, Tumblr Prompt, Vague descriptions of violence, past possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:15:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22407829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YellowMagicalGirl/pseuds/YellowMagicalGirl
Summary: Krel fell in love with a boy with golden eyes. Those golden eyes were filled with malice, now.Does not require knowledge of other fics in series.
Relationships: Krel Tarron/Douxie (Tales of Arcadia)
Series: Once and Potentially Future [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1783975
Comments: 4
Kudos: 62





	you lost your light when the darkness called

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the tumblr prompt "Krel + Corrupt". It assumes that the events of _Wizards_ take place over the course of several months.

Krel would admit that he had been lonely for a large portion of his life. He had wanted friends, but between not knowing how to talk to people, wanting to please his parents, and having two sets of arms setting him apart from most Akiridions, he never got the chance to have them.

And then he went to Earth, and he met Eli and Toby. He hadn’t _meant_ to befriend them, and he got the feeling that they hadn’t meant to befriend him, either. Steve definitely only befriended him because the oaf wanted to smush faces with Krel’s sister. Krel had never understood that. Friends were better than Krel could have _imagined,_ but he never understood why his sister wanted to have a _romance._

He never understood until months after Morando was defeated. He’d been working on Claire’s new staff, one that would integrate his portal technology with her magic, _without_ having to pass through a dimension where a witch in golden armor was sealed. The amount of people working on the staff varied between one and three. Sometimes Krel would work on it while the blanks reminded him he had school the next day. Other days he’d find his lab invaded by one to two wizards. Well, he supposed that invaded wasn’t the right word, since they were careful about personal space, more so than Toby, Steve, and Eli. Besides, the two were somewhere between wanted and needed in Krel’s lab. Claire had to test the staff, since she was the one who was going to be using it, and her magic was apparently volatile compared to other wizards. Douxie was there for his knowledge in crafting magical items, though he avoided answering questions about _where_ he had learned.

Nimue hadn’t helped at all. Part of it was the fact that she busy trying to find a counterspell to the talisman they had found in the lab of some creepy dark wizard. It could cause the formerly possessed to be mind controlled, and given Claire’s past it was dangerous. However, Nimue clearly didn’t like Claire and her use of dark magic. Never mind that Claire had used dark magic to save the world, she was corrupted. Nimue would hold an uneasy truce with her, and work to protect her free will, but to Nimue, anyone who used dark magic wasn’t someone to be trusted.

Douxie hadn’t _refuted_ Nimue’s position on dark magic, but he hadn’t said anything at all. He’d just grown quiet. Sadness and guilt would fill his golden eyes.

Krel had found himself staring at Douxie’s eyes more and more often. Douxie hid his emotions, and seemed to be happy or at least calm most of the time. Occasionally a little perturbed, but that was everyone. Apparently, wizards’ emotions could influence their spells, and due to that they needed to keep their emotions in check. Nimue apparently did so with biting sarcasm, while Claire’s magic was even more volatile than usual when she got angry or scared. Douxie seemed to be a master of masking his emotions, but his eyes often betrayed him.

It was when Krel found himself staring at Douxie’s eyes instead of the final adjustments to the staff that Krel realized that his feelings about the wizard had changed. Krel had made a startled noise, and Douxie had looked up, concern filling his eyes. Concern and... the closest word Krel could think of was fondness, but it was slightly different than the fondness Douxie held for Archie, or their friends. For a second, Krel wanted to confess his feelings, but then he realized that he had no idea _how._ He still had a hard time interacting with people, and apparently confessing romantic feelings if they were unrequited were a huge embarrassment that could even ruin the friendship, if Steve and Toby were to be believed. For all he knew, Douxie saw Krel in a similar light to Steve: as a little brother. And unfortunately, Douxie’s eyes didn’t betray _that._

After a week of trying to figure out the nature of Douxie’s feelings, Krel decided that he would ask Aja for help. Hopefully, he could swear her to secrecy, and she wouldn’t blab to Eli, Toby, and Steve, who would blab to Jim and Claire, who would accidentally let the information slip to Mary, and then _everyone in Arcadia_ would know. If he couldn’t swear Aja to secrecy, then he’d be better off asking Douxie without any other evidence to support either conclusion.

In the mean time, Douxie and Nimue had met up with him, Toby, Claire, Jim, and Steve after school, and the seven of them were walking to the magic shop.

“Ow,” Nimue said, pulling a talisman out of her pocket, holding it with her nails. It was the one from the creepy dark wizard’s lab. “Why’s this burning hot... oh _crap.”_

Claire’s hands were over her mouth, and there were tears at the corners of her wide eyes. One of her hands was cracking in terror. She blinked, and her eyes were black and gold and glowing. Everyone scrambled for weapons from backpacks as she summoned her armor from a crystal and expanded the staff Krel had made for her.

Nimue screamed, and Krel turned his head.

Douxie’s eyes were still gold, but they a corrupted version of themselves. They were gold in the way that Claire’s were. And as Douxie stabbed Nimue and gazed at their friend group, his eyes were filled with nothing but malice.

Douxie had been possessed before, likely by the same person who had possessed Claire.

After several minutes of battle, Krel wanted to call for backup. There was no way he could call any of his friends for help, not quickly enough. Eli was with his sister on Akiridion-V. Archie and Nimue were trying to find a way to break the control. Jim was holding off Claire with about as much ease as Krel was holding off Douxie. It was the daytime, and AAARRRGGHH!!! had no protection from the sun. Steve was taking Toby to the hospital for his eye.

“I _know_ you don’t want to do this,” Krel said. Was it pointless? Probably, but if he could distract Douxie at _all_ it’d be worth it.

Douxie’s brows furrowed. “It’s never been about what _I_ want.”

Krel barely blocked Douxie’s lunge towards his core.

Douxie smirked. “I’ve been fated to kill a king ever since I was born. Why not add a king-in-waiting?”

Krel narrowed his eyes and adjusted his grip on his serrator. “You’re doing a bad job of pretending to be Douxie, because he doesn’t believe in fate!”

“I’ve _always_ believed in fate, I just made the mistake of rebelling against it. Though in a sense, I guess you’re right. My real name has always been Mordred.”

“Mordred. So _you’re_ the one possessing Douxie.”

“I’m not possessed!” Krel had to return to his human form to avoid losing his head. “I renamed myself to a curse because I was mistaken, but my real name is _still_ Mordred. But _none of you_ ever figured out that I’ve hidden _so much_ from you. No, _all of you_ were too preoccupied in your own problems to even think that I hid my true emotions from you!”

“Are you _kidding_ me?” Krel shifted his serrator from a shield into a sword. “I’ve asked you if you were okay because I can see in your eyes that you’re _not,_ but you just don’t want to talk so you can’t shift the blame onto me! And besides, I’ve been driving myself crazy these past three weeks trying to figure _out_ your true emotions, specifically if you share my romantic feelings for you!”

Both boys paused as they realized what Krel had said. Douxie, or rather, Mordred, took a step back, his facial expression softening. A single crack ran down his face, like a teardrop.

Mordred’s head jerked like he had been slapped. When he looked back at Krel, his eyes were glowing more intensely, and he wore a crazed smile. “I guess you’re lucky, then. My face will be the last one you ever see.”

**Author's Note:**

> I made [art of Douxie and Claire being mind controlled and smug](https://yellowmagicalgirl.tumblr.com/post/190442129300/lets-just-say-i-had-a-fic-idea-for-these-two) while I was working on this fic.
> 
> EDIT: I made [more art;](https://yellowmagicalgirl.tumblr.com/post/612164629040381952/both-boys-paused-as-they-realized-what-krel-had) contains mild glitch/unreality (3D effects)


End file.
